Rafael Campo is a doctor, professor and highly-regarded poet who has just published his sixth book of poetry titled, "Alternative Medicine," which explores the primal relationship between language, empathy and healing.
For Campo, poetry and healing are intricately related.
"To me the patient's voice, the stories they have to tell are absolutely central to the work of healing. ... The poetry of the encounter helps me to think even more effectively and more thoughtfully really about that. I feel like listening to that story and really attuning my ear to the patients voice helps me listen to their heart more clearly ."
A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he teaches there and practices general internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is also on the faculty of the Lesley University Creative Writing MFA program.
Campo sees poetry everywhere. "It is in every encounter with my patients. I think healing really in a very profound way is about poetry. When we read a poem, we participate in another narrative. We really get inside another person's head, under their skin and medicine and medical interactions are very very similar you know."
Rafael Campo uses his stethoscope to explore rhythms of poetry | Art Beat | PBS NewsHour | PBS
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